CVR Birthdays this week:
Happy Birthday to: Ben Kidder, Nik Ponzio, Ricky McLain
Hi CVR Members,
Well, the magic number is down to 0 and there are no more next weeks. It is hard to believe that after 103 news and notes, this is my very last one. Feels like time was lost somewhere in the Covid world. It was a very busy term as president. I wanted to give you my final thoughts and will start out with this story of the News and Notes.
When I become President, I was worried about a few things. I had 2 years already as VP to think about it. Of course, there was no thought of Covid at that time. My biggest concern was, writing this darn news and notes every week! Among many things I am not, writing is at the top of the NOT list. Remembering back to my elementary and high school days, I believe C’s and D’s were the norm for me in English. So how in the world could I take over from former President Andy Shuford and meet the standards of him and other former presidents? Then as I just got started and in my first week as president, the lockdown drove us to cancel the Mutt Strutt and postpone the Paul Mailman in April. Nothing got better with more postponements and eventual cancelation of our entire race series for 2021. What a terrible start for me as week after week I felt like I was writing bad news, until we eventually launched our first virtual series called the Participation Series. I tried to be more creative and perhaps the virtual series saved me. However, as president, I can see what percent of the members actually read the news and notes. When I first noticed that I was so disappointed that my read rate was only 48% while Andy’s was around 60%! That wasn’t good for my confidence. I reached out to the executive committee and several others and asked, am I doing something wrong? The answer was they didn’t think so and just keep doing it and eventually more will start reading. I’m not sure what I did different, but the rate did start to go up and now it is above 60% and I actually have a following of 200+ members who faithfully read my news and notes every week. Wow, that’s awesome. If only my English teachers from the past could see me now, maybe they would convert those old grades to A’s and B’s? Probably not, but that is the end of the news and notes story. I survived it and I kind of have this feeling I’m going to miss it next week.
More seriously speaking, being president during this era was not exactly the easiest position to be in. Being creative and introducing new ways of doing things became the way of operation. There were a few goals however, I had along the way. I wanted to understand what the essence of the club members was. In other words, what did they value the most, what did they want to do the most? Hence, the 2 surveys and the committees to analyze them. I wanted to grow membership and open this club up to everyone of all ages and abilities where they have no fear or embarrassment to run in the group or a race, I wanted to make it fun by creating new events which more members would join, I wanted to bring us into the modern world of social media so we all can experience communicating and posting our fun running adventures with each other. I’m not sure if I succeeded at doing any of those things, but, what a ride. Together we have achieved so much in the last 2 years. I could not have done it without support from so many of you.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to lead this great organization. It’s time now for me to run off into the sunset and I hope to see you all on the roads this summer. If you would like to talk with me you should do so by my own email (Manny). If you respond to this email it will go to our new president.
Oh, I forgot to write the real news you’ve been waiting for! A lot went on this past week so let’s get into the news.
Kaynor’s Sap Run 10K
Our second race of the 2022 CVR Race Series was concluded on Sunday, GMAA’s Kaynor’s Sap Run 10K. A usually sloppy hilly course that is difficult to run this time of year. The conditions of the roads, however, were the best I have ever seen, although I have only run it four times. A sizable number of CVR members participated in the race. Of course many are members of GMAA as well, but here they are. We had 1 first place age group winner and 2 second place finishers. For total results go to the GMAA Kaynor’s Sap Run results. Congratulations to everyone!
Nik Ponzio
Bill Everett
Charlie Windisch
Donna Smyers: 2nd F60-69
Eric Ryea
Cheryl Lasell
Darrel Lasell
Tom Mowatt
April Farnham
Jaime Gadwah
Sal Acosta
Joe Merrill
Manny Sainz
John Hackney: 1st M70+
Tim Hogeboom
Katie Humphrey
Chris Cote
Merril Creagh
Ann Treadmill: 2nd F50-59
Annual Meeting
A hybrid annual meeting was held on Sunday. 15 members attended live and 16 were virtual. Since there would be too much to report here, you can click Annual Meeting to read the minutes posted on our website. I will announce here however, our new officers elected that will lead the club from April 1, 2022.
Elected Officers
President – Chris Andresen
Vice President – Kim Caldwell
Finance – John Valentine
Secretary – Cheryl Lasell
At Large Executive Committee: Bob Murphy, Darragh Ellerson
Winter Group Runs
A nice turn out for last Saturday’s run. Milder temperatures and not as muddy roads made for a nice long run. Good to see a couple of 7 am’ers. This week, Heather will be bringing the group back to Montpelier for another flat or hilly run, your choice.
Membership Renewal – Reminder
We are in the renewal time of year. If your membership year is 2021 your membership will expire on 3/31/2022. Consider renewing. We hope to have you back for an unrestricted year of participation!
Unofficial Fun Runs are back!
Not sure why we are calling them unofficial. They are kind of official now! One of the outcomes of the Annual Meeting was that we are rebranding the Fun Run as the Fun Run. That may sound odd, but some members felt the fun run wasn’t fun and it somewhat had to do with runners being timed. That aspect of the event is now going away. If you want to be timed, then you need to time yourself. Some ideas of introducing monthly themes to make it a little more exciting are being discussed. More about that will come out later.
With that announcement, it becomes obvious that Darragh Ellerson will no longer be there every Tuesday night to time your runs. As most of you regulars know, Darragh had been doing that for many, many years. For many of us, it will be quite sad not to see her there at the end taking down your name. I am hoping that Darragh still shows up and walks with the group. If you see her out there this year, please give her your appreciation for the years of service she put into the event and encourage her to continue her participation by walking!
Awards Ceremony and Dinner
Those who attended had a great time. Master of Ceremony Joe Merrill and I had lots of fun handing out awards prior to Donna Smyers and John Martin announcing and handing out the Spirit of the Club and David Ellerson awards for 2021. A huge shout out to John Martin for coordinating this event!
Award Winners
The “There’s Nobody Here to Make Dot Helling Jokes” Award: Dot Helling
2021 Most age group wins: Dot Helling and Mack Gardner-Morse
The “I Picked a Good Year to be Injured” Award: Dot Martin
2021 Most Veteran Racer Award: Bob Murphy
Most Virtual Races in 2020: Cheryl Lasell
Six Races in 20 Miles: Chris Andresen
Cartooning to keep us Running: Merill Creagh
The “We’re Members, We Just Haven’t Joined Yet” Award: Mark Evans and Keely Koenig
2021 Top Volunteer: Donna Smyers
The “Somebody Made Me President and All I Got Was This Lousy Pandemic” Award: Manny Sainz
2021 President’s Award: John Hackney
The Spirit of the Club Award: Manny Sainz
David Ellerson Award: Sigh Searles
Coming up Events
Paul Mailman 10 Mile and 5K
Open for registration! The race will be at 8:45am on Saturday, April 16. It will start and finish on the Montpelier High School track this year. Registration is open now on Run Sign Up for $15. Race day registration will be $20. Volunteers are needed! Volunteers can sign up through the Members section on the website. See below. Register here.
Mutt Strutt
The most fun race of the year!! Bring your dog and show how well you can run with them. It’s a blast and it’s on April 24th at Little River State Park! Registration is open.
Registration link.
Adamant Half Marathon
Adamant Half Marathon Sunday, May 8th is open for registration! Register here.
Volunteer Signup
To make this year’s events successful, we need volunteers! Race Directors are always in need of volunteers so if you are available on the day of an event and will not be running, please consider to volunteer. This year, we are accepting your sign up on our website. Click here to check out the signup site. Click on “Volunteer for a CVR Race”. If any issues please reach out to our webmaster John Hackney.
Other News
Newsletter Editor
We are in search of our next newsletter editor. If you have any interest please let me know.
Corporate Cup 5K
Dot Helling, who is on the Governor’s Fitness Council, is reaching out for volunteers and also needs race walk judges. The event is Thursday May 19th at 6 pm. If you can support this event please reach out to Dot. Thanks!
Ellie Purrier St. Pierre’s Medal Winner
Mack Gardener-Morse shared this with me today.
Elle Purrier St. Pierre’s final-lap push pays off, as she claims silver in the women’s 3000 m at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Serbia.
Watch the YouTube of the race.
CVR sponsored by:
Ongoing/Upcoming events
CVR Races
Paul Mailman 10 Mile and 5K 4/16
Mutt Strutt 4/24
Adamant Half Marathon 5/8/2022
Tuesday Fun Runs – weekly
5:30 PM Meet at the bike path in the Department of Labor parking lot
Runderachievers in Northfield
Runderachievers is a social run group that meets in front of Good Measure Brewing Co every Thursday at 5:30. (17 East St, Northfield, VT 05663)
All ages, and abilities are welcome. After a short run(or walk) we enjoy special pricing of their draft craft beers.
Anyone wishing to enter the brewery must show proof of vaccination.
Spruce Mountain Hike/Run – Postponed until road conditions improve!
Every Sunday from 7:30 am. Hikers or runners of all abilities can join. Reach out to April Farnham with any questions.
With that, the end is here. One last time,
Safe Running!
Manny Sainz